FINO ALLFESCIA! – TO THE BETTER END

At 6:45pm, on October 24, 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton was, however, starting to look back. He had begun an ocean voyage from England six months ago, and now more than 10, 000 miles from land on a frozen Arctic sea, in a single wooden ship with twenty three men.

Shackleton had made two previous attempts to be the first to reach the south pole. Both times he had failed, although on one trip he came within 100 miles of his goal. He was eventually beaten to this historic discovery, yet he did not give up, but merely changed his objective. His problem that October night was how to cross the Antarctic continent, a journey of thousands miles, first by sea and then over land by dogsled.

The opportunity was to gather scientific knowledge and become the first in history to accomplish this feat. The temperature was as low as minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds up to 200 miles per hour. The ice pack was so tight; he began to doubt whether he’d ever reach land.

At that moment, his worst fears were realized. The ship, Endurance, was trapped in ice, stranded, with no means of communication, thousands of miles from rescue across the worst ocean in the world. Worse still, the ice pressure gripped, squeezed, and then slowly crushed the boat. It rapidly sank, leaving him and his men stranded, with winter coming on and little hope of ever being rescued of returning alive.

Once his ship was gone, he spent the next two years battling the drift ice floes and Arctic winter, in unimaginable conditions. And in the end he escaped with his small band by sailing thousands of miles through towering waves in a spare lifeboat to Georgia island, which enabled the entire expedition to be rescued.

Though Shackleton’s trip could be viewed as a failure because he didn’t get to his destination, why was he become such a legend? Asked one writer. Why has his adventure been told and retold generation after generation? Why has his experience be studied, treated in everything from arts exhibition and TV specials to courses and Management books? The truth is, many view it as a success. He tackled impossible odds and made it out alive.

Whatever you are going through in life, always think of the end product. Every woman knows that the labour room is no fun, but they know the outcome is always joy.

Dear reader, when next it looks like that dream will not come to pass, remember FINO ALLAFESCIA (TO THE BETTER END).

To your success!